1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information display device capable of displaying with good visibility meta-information (metadata) related to icons selected by a user out of a plurality of icons list-displayed on a display screen while effectively utilizing resources related to the display screen. The present invention relates also to an image forming apparatus mounted thereon with the information display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in information terminals, for example, there is adopted an information display technology for improving the visibility of information of icons, etc., displayed on a standby screen.
Of these technologies, for example, Japanese Published Unexamined Patent Application No. 2007-179332 discloses an information display technology in which when any one of a plurality of icons list-displayed on an icon display area on the standby screen is selected, icon information corresponding to the selected icon is obtained, and an icon based on the icon information is displayed in an image display area instead of an image that is being displayed.
However, in the aforementioned prior art, the display screen is previously segmented into each information attribute different from each other, such as an icon display area, an image display area, a reproduced-music information display area, etc., and in each of the display areas fixedly set in this manner, each of the corresponding attribute information is displayed. Thus, in a display area in which no corresponding attribute information is present, resources related to the display screen are inevitably wasted. Further, when there is a large number of attribute information targeted for display, the area for displaying each attribute information needs to be narrow, which often impairs the visibility related to the attribute information display.